Architecture calls the tune in Sydney Festival's Seidler Salon Series

By Nick Galvin

The description of architecture as "frozen music" has been attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Or was it Friedrich Schiller?

Regardless of its author, this well-worn aphorism has inspired Wesley Enoch to commission one of the most intriguing programs in this year's Sydney Festival.

The Goldner Quartet, Julian Smiles, Dimity Hall, Dene Olding and Irina Morozova at the Rose Seidler House in Wahroonga.

Photo: Christopher Pearce

In the Seidler Salon Series, musicians playing in a widely divergent range of styles – from the Goldner String Quartet to the Estonian vocal ensemble Vox Clamantis – will stage concerts in five of modernist architect Harry Seidler's iconic buildings around Sydney.

"This notion that physical space and its shaping and design could be connected to ideas of sound and music caught my attention," says Enoch, who is directing his second festival.

"I was reading about Seidler and his impact on both the skyline and the design of Sydney and I was caught by his love of art, music and creative ideas outside of architecture and how he has had a huge influence in this city but then all of the country and the world."

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In keeping with the salon aesthetic, the concerts will be intimate in size with between 50 and 100 people at each venue. The setting is the polar opposite of the traditional large concert hall and is intended to break down the barrier between performer and audience, says Stuart Rogers who co-curated the program with Enoch

"I lived in New York for 15 years before I came back to take up this job with Sydney Festival," he says.

"A good friend, the Icelandic composer Skuli Sverrisson, used to have salons at his loft in Soho. It was a really wonderful opportunity to see artists you wouldn't normally see in such small spaces. I thought it was a beautiful concept."

In selecting artists for the venues, which include Rose Seidler House, Wahoonga, the Seidler Penthouse in North Sydney and Killara's Harry and Penelope Seidler House, Rogers gave great consideration to matching performers and venues.

"We've been working with the artists to come up with repertoire that suits the space," he says. "For instance at the Elizabeth Street Offices, we're looking to do 20th century Australian composers and at Rose Seidler House we're looking at more baroque and classical era composers."

"We didn't want it all to be straight-up classical but to go outside the form and push it in different ways," says Rogers. "We want to bring in people who like classical music but who are willing to take a bit of a leap and go see someone like Maarja Nuut."

The Seidler Salon Series, part of Sydney Festival, begins on January 9